The return of Nick Martinez and the acquisition of Brady Singer have solidified the Reds’ rotation and now have the membership trying to improve the offense. President of baseball operations Nick Krall tells Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that the Reds “wish to add hitters” now. And whereas Krall wouldn’t expressly rule out the addition of one other infielder, he did counsel that any new acquisitions would “more than likely” be within the outfield. Sheldon’s piece has a number of quotes from Krall, so Reds followers specifically will wish to test it out in full.
The extent to which Reds possession is keen to extend payroll isn’t but clear. Reds COO Doug Healy mentioned final month that payroll can be at or above 2024 ranges. Cincinnati completed out final 12 months with a $100MM payroll and is at the moment projected for a $101MM payroll in 2025, per RosterResource. They’ll must be keen to push that quantity a great bit increased, discover a option to subtract an present contract (e.g. Jeimer Candelario, Emilio Pagan), or strike a commerce for a pre-arbitration bat to additional bolster the lineup.
Krall famous that he’s exploring each free agent and commerce potentialities as he appears to be like to beef up an outfield combine that at the moment contains Jake Fraley, TJ Friedl, Spencer Steer, Will Benson, Stuart Fairchild, Blake Dunn and Rece Hinds.
Steer also can play a number of infield positions, however the Reds have a crowded — if inexperienced — infield combine as properly. Elly De La Cruz is locked in at shortstop. Matt McLain is more likely to deal with second base on an on a regular basis foundation now that India has been traded. Issues are much less sure on the corners after Candelario struggled in 12 months one in every of a three-year contract. He’ll be within the combine at each corners, whereas former high prospect Noelvi Marte may also see time at third and Christian Encarnacion-Strand will see time at first. Marte missed half the season attributable to a PED suspension and hit terribly upon returning. Encarnacion-Strand was even much less impactful in 123 plate appearances earlier than present process season-ending wrist surgical procedure.
Given the uncertainty concerning the infield corners, it’s a minimum of doable Steer might finally see extra time within the infield. He was strictly an infielder with the Twins (the group that drafted him) and solely started experimenting within the outfield with the Reds in 2023 attributable to their glut of infielders.
The kind of outfield acquisition the Reds make will in some methods dictate the infield alignment. It appears probably that the goal will likely be a nook bat, each attributable to an absence of viable middle subject choices available on the market and as a result of presence of Friedl in middle subject. Friedl’s defensive grades plummeted final season, although that’s probably attributable to a hamstring damage that shelved him for a month in the summertime. Friedl drew plus marks for his glovework and dash pace in 2023. In 2024, his common dash pace (as measured by Statcast) fell from 28.3 toes per second (74th percentile of MLB gamers) to 26.5 ft/sec (twenty sixth percentile). Friedl went 6-for-6 in stolen base makes an attempt by means of his first 26 video games of the season. He performed 59 video games upon getting back from the hamstring pressure and solely tried 4 extra steals (going 3-for-4). It appears clear his legs weren’t at full power.
Among the many nook choices available on the market are Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernandez, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar, Michael Conforto, Max Kepler, Mike Tauchman and previous buddy Jesse Winker. After Martinez accepted the $21.05MM qualifying provide, it’d be a bit shocking to see Cincinnati go to the probably $20MM+ annual worth vary wanted to signal Hernandez or Santander. The Reds even have a largely right-handed lineup at current, maybe making a left-handed bat extra interesting.
